Shuttering N.J. women’s prison after decades of abuse is one option ‘on the table,’ top official says
Updated May 03, 2021;
New Jersey may consider shutting down the state’s only women’s prison in the wake of new allegations of abuse behind bars, the head of the state’s corrections department told lawmakers Monday.
An outside consultant will take a close look at whether to keep the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Hunterdon County open after decades of documented misconduct by staff, Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks said during a three-hour budget hearing before he Assembly Budget Committee.
“That is on the table,” Hicks said, but he did not offer any further details and stressed that closure was just one of many changes that will be explored by the consultant.
Credit: (Screengrab from Zoom)
Department of Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks, bottom right, defended himself and his administration.
New Jersey’s prisons, where a federal investigation found a “pattern” of sexual abuse, now have an early warning system to monitor staff behavior and a $1.3 million contract with a consultant to recommend reforms, the corrections commissioner told lawmakers Monday.
And starting next Monday, there will be a new assistant commissioner of women’s services to oversee reforms at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, where a January incident left two inmates seriously injured and now 10 corrections officers facing criminal charges.
Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks mostly declined to specifically discuss the January assaults during a hearing before the Assembly Budget Committee. But Hicks did provide a few details not previously made public about that incident. He said that 30 Department of Corrections staff were suspended, with pay, f
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Brent Spiner has made his determinations. Or maybe it was pressure from other states. But with New Jersey s COVID-19 positivity rate steadily decreasing, Gov. Murphy announced a joint plan with New York and Connecticut to lift most capacity restrictions in a couple weeks (after Cuomo beat him to the punch with his own announcement, and a long time after Connecticut).
When embattled Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks answers the the legislature on Monday, he'll do so without the woman present who is leading the charge to impeach him. According to Assemblywoman Jean Stanfield (R-8), Democratic Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin refused to let her sit in for ano
N.J. spending millions to negotiate abuse lawsuits from women’s prison, records show
Updated 8:17 AM;
The problems in New Jersey’s only women’s prison are costing taxpayers.
The state will likely spend almost $2.8 million on outside lawyers amid several lawsuits alleging abuse behind bars, according to public records.
That’s on top of nearly $21 million taxpayers will have to pay out if a court ultimately approves a settlement for former prisoners, including more than 20 women who said they were sexually abused at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Hunterdon County.
Those numbers are in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to another outside advisor in the wake of a federal inquiry, and any money eventually spent on new lawsuits filed since several women said they were severely beaten by staff in January, an incident that has already led to charges against 10 officers.